I distrust Google.

There, I said it. I don’t feel comfortable having an advertising company parse out my entire online identity and data and I’ve always have had serious doubts about people that are so willing to hand over the keys to their own kingdom (including myself).

However, when it comes to relatively brainless setup of something as nerdy as Exchange service for an individual, there aren’t very many options. One of those options is, of course, Google Apps.

I’ve been using Google Apps (the paid variety) for my @samharrelson.com mail/calendar/contact service for the last two years until I decided to roll my own and give things a go through my web hosting service, MediaTemple.

That worked fine when it came to IMAP email but I still longed for calendar, task and contact sync (as well as synchronous mail sync that kept everything properly read and unread). Clearly, that service wasn’t what I wanted.

This weekend I decided to give Rackspace a try (their hosted Exchange service). After 10 minutes of setup between Apple Mail, iCal, my iPhone (via an additional ActiveSync service add-on) and my iPad with their Exchange servers, I was all set. I’m automatically in love.

Yes, it costs $13 a month (Exchange is $10 and ActiveSync for my iPhone is $3), but I cannot think of a better expenditure to ensure that I’m free of the google chain on my identity while having Exchange level service to the most important part of my digital experience (email).

BTW… Pro Tip here: check out the TaskTask app if you are using iOS and interested in Exchange level task sync… Wow. Great app there.

All in all, I’m in nerd love.